Notts Co v Doncaster: Chance for Rovers’ Academy stars to graduate

THE flower of youth may have been slow to germinate at Doncaster Rovers in recent seasons, but times could be changing.

With little to play for other than pride in the final few games of the season, Rovers’ manager Paul Dickov is likely to hand opportunities to more young players keen to follow in the footsteps of Mitchell Lund, who has impressed all and sundry with his performances in the past week.

It will represent a welcome sight for Rovers fans, with supporters hoping that the likes of Lund, Harry Middleton and Billy Whitehouse can follow in the footsteps of ex-player James Husband and become first-teamers at the club and earn some money for the Keepmoat coffers further down the line.

On getting a first-team squad supplemented largely by Academy products, Dickov, likely to give several a chance at Meadow Lane today, said: “Without getting too far ahead of ourselves, that is what we are trying to do here.

“You always want to bring in senior players and good players to try and get you to improve every season, but we have a young group who we have worked with a lot this year and they have been with the first-team squad all season.

“The senior lads within the squad know they are good players and have seen how much they have improved this year already in being involved in training and that match-day environment, albeit not always in the 18.